In-vehicle equipment system

ABSTRACT

Front-mounted in-vehicle equipment arranged to a front part of a vehicle internal space, rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment arranged to a rear part of the vehicle internal space, and a connection adapted to connect the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment and the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment is described. Rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment controls the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment via a keyboard or game controller, thereby allowing a passenger to control the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment in a straightforward manner from the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment instead of the driver operating the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment. The rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment can be denied access to overwriting information related to music data in the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of Ser. No. 12/349,969,filed Jan. 7, 2009, which is a divisional application of Ser. No.11/016,811, filed Dec. 21, 2004, which is based on and claims benefit ofpriority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-004790, filedin the Japanese Patent Office on Jan. 9, 2004. The contents of all ofthe above-noted applications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an in-vehicle equipment system and isparticularly suited, for example, to application to in-vehicle equipmentsystem of connecting front-mounted in-vehicle equipment arranged in thevicinity of a driver's seat within a vehicle internal space andrear-mounted in-vehicle equipment arranged in the vicinity of rearseating.

2. Related Art

In the related art, in-vehicle equipment such as car audio equipment,car televisions, car navigation systems and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)players etc. are arranged within a vehicle internal space, with suchin-vehicle equipment becoming more complex and multifunctional, year byyear.

Further, it is necessary to input titles etc. relating to music contentrecorded on a recording medium for in-vehicle equipment such as writablecar audio systems etc. employing hard discs or magneto-optical discsetc. as recording media.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As shown in FIG. 11, in-vehicle equipment 100 is typically arranged onthe dashboard in the vicinity of the driver's seat. The in-vehicleequipment 100 is then operated by a driver in the driver's seat or apassenger in a passenger seat through the operation of a remotecontroller 104 constituted by hardware switches 101 and 102 of thein-vehicle equipment 100, a rotary commander arranged in the vicinity ofthe shift lever shown in FIG. 12, or through the use of a typical remotecontrol 105 operated by a passenger in a rear seat as shown in FIG. 13.

Further, in-vehicle computer systems also exist where input to acomputer main unit located within the vehicle is possible via a keyboardbrought to within the vehicle, for example, as disclosed in Japanesepatent application publication number H10 (1998)-260759.

However, with the in-vehicle equipment 100 (FIG. 11) of thisconfiguration, the number of keys available for the hardware switches101 and 102 and the remote controller 104 for a typical input means issmall. Further, the screen size of a display screen 103 of thein-vehicle equipment 100 shown in FIG. 14 is also relatively small sothat a scroll operation is required, which forces a driver in thedriving seat to carry out a complex input operation.

Moreover, in the event of carrying out character input, it is necessaryto input one character at a time using input means such as the hardwareswitches 101 and 102 and the remote controller 104 but passengers on therear seating have to perform the input operation using only the remotecontroller 104, which makes the input operation quite difficult.

Further, even if an input operation is carried out via a keyboardbrought into the vehicle in the in-vehicle computer system shown in theabove mentioned Japanese patent application publication numberH10(1998)-260759, for example, it is still only possible to use thedisplay having a small screen size arranged at a central position of thefront section within the vehicle, and the input operation is thereforenot made that much easier.

In order to take the above points into consideration, the presentinvention has been conceived in order to provide an in-vehicle equipmentsystem where complex input operations can be executed in a morestraightforward manner and which provides support for driver inputoperations.

In order to address these issues, a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention is provided including front-mounted in-vehicle equipmentarranged at a front portion of a vehicle internal space, rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment arranged at a rear part of the vehicle internalspace, and connection adapted to connect the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment and the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment. As a result of therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment controlling the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment, it is possible for a passenger to control thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment in an extremely straightforwardmanner from the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment via input meansinstead of the driver operating the front-mounted in-vehicle equipmentand a passenger can therefore provide support for a driver's seat inputoperation.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, anin-vehicle equipment system includes front-mounted in-vehicle equipmentarranged at the front portion of a vehicle internal space, rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment arranged at the rear part of the vehicle internalspace, and connection adapted to connect the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment and the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment. As a result of therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment controlling the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment, it is possible for a passenger to control thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment in a straightforward manner from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment via input means instead of the driveroperating the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment and a passenger cantherefore provide support for a driver's seat input operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following description ofthe presently preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an outline view showing an overall configuration of in-vehicleequipment of a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an outline block view showing a circuit configuration forfront-mounted in-vehicle equipment;

FIG. 3 is an outline block view showing a circuit configuration forrear-mounted in-vehicle equipment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure for music data titleinformation acquisition and display processing;

FIG. 5 is an outline view showing an edit screen for the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure for data re-writingprocessing;

FIG. 7 is an outline view showing an overall configuration of in-vehicleequipment of a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the procedure for content titleacquisition and display processing;

FIG. 9 is an outline view showing a content switching screen for therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure for content switchingprocessing;

FIG. 11 is an outline view showing a hardware switch of in-vehicleequipment of the related art;

FIG. 12 is an outline view showing a configuration (1) for a remotecontroller of the related art;

FIG. 13 is an outline view showing a configuration (2) for a remotecontroller of the related art;

FIG. 14 is an outline view showing an edit screen for a car audio screenof in-vehicle equipment of the related art.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The following is a description, with reference to the drawings, ofpreferred embodiments of the present invention.

(1) First Preferred Embodiment

(1-1) Overall System Configuration of in-Vehicle Equipment System

In FIG. 1, numeral 1 shows an overview of an in-vehicle equipment systemaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, having aconfiguration where front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 including, forexample, an integrated audio unit having a CD (Compact Disc, atrademark) and MD (Mini Disc, a trademark) arranged at a substantiallycentral portion of the dashboard in the vicinity of the driver's seatand rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 constituted by a game devicearranged in the vicinity of rear seating connected by a cable 4, forexample.

A display section 19 including an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and ahardware switch 18 are provided at the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2. CD's and MD's are then played back etc. via the hardwareswitch 18 and various types of display such as display of elapsedplayback time are carried out at the display section 19.

A display device 5, keyboard 6, and game controller 7 are connected tothe rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3. It is therefore possible for apassenger in a rear seat to enjoy games using the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 by operating the game controller 7, performcomplex input operations, and input characters via the keyboard 6 whilelooking at the screen displayed at the display device 5.

(1-2) Front-Mounted In-Vehicle Equipment Circuit Configuration

As shown in FIG. 2, the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 operatesbased on electrical power supplied via a power management section 22from a battery 23 or vehicle power supply (not shown). Prescribedprocessing is executed according to basic programs and applicationprograms started up from ROM (Read Only Memory) 13 to RAM (Random AccessMemory) 12 by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 of an operationprocessor 10 via a bus 16. These processing results are then outputtedat the display section 19 and the speaker 20 via an interface 15.

The front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 receives instructionscorresponding to rotating or pressing operations of the hardware switch18 provided at the surface of the body using a CPU 11 of an operationprocessor 10 via an operation input section 17. Prescribed processing isthen executed according to these instructions so that the disc drive 25is operated so as to playback a CD or MD, audio files are read out fromthe non-volatile memory 14 and outputted from the speaker 20, or imagedata read-out from the hard disc 21 is outputted to the display section19.

Further, the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 is not limited toinstructions from the hardware switch 18 and it is also possible toexecute prescribed processing according to instructions from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 connected via a communicationprocessor 24 and a cable 4.

(1-3) Circuit Configuration for Rear Vehicle Equipment

On the other hand, the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 shown in FIG.3 also operates based on electrical power supplied from the battery 50or on-vehicle power supply (not shown) via a power management section49, executes prescribed processing according to basic programs andapplication programs started up from ROM 43 in RAM 42 via a bus 46 by aCPU 41 of an operation processor 40, and outputs the results of thisprocessing from a display device 5 connected via an interface 45.

The rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 receives instructions inputtedfrom the keyboard 6 or game controller 7 via an operation input section47 using the CPU 41 of the operation processor 40. A disc drive 53 isthen activated according to these instructions so that prescribedprocessing is executed in order that a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)storing game software is played back and outputted as game images fromspeakers (not shown) of the display device 5, a saved game program isread from the non-volatile memory 44, or other various types of imagedata read-out from the hard disc drive 48 are outputted to the displaydevice 5 and displayed, etc.

Further, the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 also makes transferrequests relating to title information for music data at thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 from the hard disc 21 of thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 and the non-volatile memory 14according to input operations with respect to the keyboard 6 and gamecontroller 7 connected to the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3.

When the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 carries out editingoperations via the keyboard 6 such as changing of titles or changing theorder of the music data etc. based on music data title informationreceived as a result of transfer from the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2, edited data for the content expressing the results of thisediting is sent back to the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 onceagain from a communication processor 51 via the cable 4.

The rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 has a sensor 52. The sensor 52is used to detect whether or not a connection state is maintained withthe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2, and to detect equipmentinformation such as the presence of fire, heating temperature, operatingtime of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, input information fromthe game controller 7 and stand-by time for the game controller 7,presence or absence of the batter 50 and the charge remaining, playbackaudio for a CD or MD, elapsed time for played-back images, remainingtime, and media read errors. This information is then transmitted to theCPU 41 and is transmitted to the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2from the CPU 41 via the communication processor 51 and the cable 4.

In addition, the sensor 52 is also capable of detecting whether or not astate of connection is maintained with external equipment such as acontroller, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), memory card, GPS (GlobalPositioning System) module, mouse, keyboard 6, headphones, power cable,camera, external hard disc, network cable, mobile telephone, LAN (LocalArea Network) card, and external media.

(1-4) Processing Procedure for Control of Front-Mounted in-VehicleEquipment by Rear-Mounted In-Vehicle Equipment

Next, a description is given using FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 of the process flowof controlling the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 at the in-vehicle equipment system1.

As shown in FIG. 4, in step SP1, when title information for music datain the possession of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 isacquired by a passenger in the rear seating, when the CPU 41 of therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 recognizes the setting of edit modefor performing editing, a request to acquire music data titleinformation is made to the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2according to operation of the keyboard 6 and the game controller 7, andstep SP2 is proceeded to.

In this event, in step SP11, the CPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 recognizes the content of the acquisition request from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, searches for, for example, musicdata title information in the possession of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 from the hard disc 21 according to this acquisition request,outputs the results of this search to the rear-mounted in-vehicleequipment 3 and proceeds to the following step SP12 so that processingfor the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 is complete.

On the other hand, in step SP2, the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 determines whether or not music data titleinformation constituted by the search results have been acquired fromthe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. When the results of thisdetermination are negative, step SP3 is proceeded to, an error messagesuch as “acquisition not possible” is displayed at the display device 5,and step SP1 is returned to.

When an affirmative result is obtained in step SP2, this is shown as theCPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 displaying theacquisition of the music data title information. The CPU 41 of therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 then proceeds to the next step SP4and the music data title information is displayed on the display device5. The next step SP5 is then gone to, and the title informationacquisition and display processing procedure are complete.

In this event, the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3shown in FIG. 5 displays an editing screen 60 showing titles (“0001:◯◯◯◯”, “0349: xxxx”, “0674: ∇∇∇∇”) for files (music data) divided upinto folders in a directory structure. Various editing operations suchas re-writing titles and directory names, changing the hierarchicalstructure of the directories or deleting files etc. may then be executedby a passenger using the keyboard 6.

As shown in FIG. 6, in step SP21, the CPU 4 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 carries out editing operations using the editingscreen 60 and then proceeds to step SP22 when it is confirmed that theoverwrite button of the keyboard 6 has been pressed by a passenger inthe rear seating.

In step SP22, the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3notifies the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment that title editingprocessing by the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 according topressing of the overwrite button is complete, transmits the content ofthese editing results and proceeds to the next step SP24.

In this event, in step SP31, the CPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 determines whether or not there is no problem withoverwriting the music data title information in the possession of thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 with the content resulting fromediting.

In this event, if it is determined that the driver in the front seatdoes not authorize the overwriting with the content of the editingresults, or in the event that the hard disc 21 constituting therecording target of the overwriting of the content for the editingresults or the non-volatile memory 14 are write-protected, a negativeresult is obtained, and the CPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 notifies the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 that“overwriting is not possible”.

When an affirmative result is obtained in step SP31 in this respect, theCPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 goes to the next stepSP32, updates the data by overwriting with the content of the editingresults, gives notification of overwrite completion to the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3, proceeds to the next step SP33, and processingis complete.

On the other hand, in step SP24, at the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3, a determination is made as to whether or notover-writing is complete. When it is then detected that notification ofcompletion of overwriting has been received from the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2, affirmative results are obtained, the next stepSP25 is proceeded to, and the data re-writing processing procedure iscomplete.

With respect to this, in step SP24, the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 obtains a negative result when notification ofoverwrite completion is not received from the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 and proceeds to step SP23, displays an indication thatoverwrite processing could not be carried out as error processing on thedisplay device 5, and repeats the processing from step SP22 onwards.

(1-5) Operation and Results

At the in-vehicle equipment system 1, the rear-mounted in-vehicleequipment 3 acquires the music data title information in the possessionof the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. This is then displayed atthe display device 5 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 so thata passenger in the rear seating can edit music title data etc. possessedby the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 via the keyboard 6.

As a result, the driver in the front seat does not have to edit theirown music data titles and it is no longer necessary to perform complexinput operations via the hardware switch 18.

Further, at the in-vehicle equipment system 1, the results of editingtitles of the music data at the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 aresent to the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. The results of thisediting are then confirmed by the driver and an invitation is also madeto determine whether or not to perform overwrite processing. This meansthat it is possible to always reflect the intent of the driver in thefront seat in the content of the results of editing by a passenger inthe rear seating. It is therefore possible to prevent the titles ofimportant music data from being overwritten by the driver or to preventthe playback order of the music data from being changed around, etc.

Namely, a driver support system can be implemented at the in-vehicleequipment system 1 where, intrinsically speaking, editing operations tobe carried out by the driver at the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2can be implemented by a passenger located in the vicinity of the rearseating instead of the driver via the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment3.

Further, at the in-vehicle equipment system 1, the editing operation canbe carried out via the keyboard 6 connected to the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 and the display device 5 with a screen size thatis larger than that of the display section 19 of the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2 rather than via the hardware switch 18 of thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. The input operation is thereforemade more straightforward and easier for operation to the passenger withincreased degree of freedom.

According to the above configuration, at the in-vehicle equipment system1 it is possible for title information for music data possessed by thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 to be acquired from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and for an editing operation to becarried out by a passenger on the display device 5 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 via the keyboard 6. It is therefore possible toimplement a driver support system where an editing operation can beexecuted in a dramatically more straightforward manner inside a vehicleand where a driver is not forced to perform complex input operations.

(2) Second Preferred Embodiment (2-1) Overall Configuration forIn-Vehicle Equipment System

As shown in FIG. 7 where portions corresponding to those of FIG. 1 areassigned the same numerals, an in-vehicle equipment system 70 of asecond preferred embodiment of the invention is configured from thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 arranged at a substantially centralportion of the dashboard in the vicinity of the front seating and therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 arranged in the vicinity of the rearseating connected by the cable 4, as with the in-vehicle equipmentsystem 1 of the first embodiment.

At the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, the display device 5 and thegame controller 7 are connected, with a difference from the in-vehicleequipment system 1 of the first embodiment existing in that a gamecontroller 71 is connected in place of the keyboard 6. Other aspects arethe same as for the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 of thein-vehicle equipment system 1 of the first embodiment.

In this event, the circuit configuration of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 and the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 is the same asfor the in-vehicle equipment system 1 of the first embodiment and is notdescribed, with a description being given only of the procedure for thecontrol of processing of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 by therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3.

(2-2) Processing Procedure for Control of Front-Mounted In-VehicleEquipment by Rear-Mounted In-Vehicle Equipment

Next, a description is given using FIG. 8 to FIG. 10 of the flow forcontrolling the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 at the in-vehicle equipment system70.

As shown in FIG. 8, when it is confirmed that a content switching modefor changing the playback order of the plurality of content possessed bythe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 is set by a passenger in therear passenger seat in step SP41, the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 makes a content title acquisition request to thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 according to an operation of thegame controller 71 and proceeds to the next step SP42.

In this event, in step SP61, the CPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 recognizes the content of the content title acquisitionrequest from the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, searches the harddisc 21 for, for example, all content titles for movies etc. in thepossession of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 as data accordingto this content title acquisition request, outputs the results of thissearch to the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and proceeds to thefollowing step SP62 so that processing for the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 is complete.

On the other hand, in step SP42, the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 determines whether or not a plurality of contenttitles constituted by the search results have been acquired from thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. When the results of thisdetermination are negative, step SP43 is proceeded to, an error messagesuch as “acquisition not possible” is displayed at the display device 5,and step SP41 is returned to.

If an affirmative result is then obtained with respect to this in stepSP42, the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 acquires allof the content titles from the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. TheCPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 then proceeds to thenext step SP44, all of the content titles are displayed at the displaydevice 5, the next step SP45 is gone to and the acquisition of thecontent titles and the display processing procedure are complete.

In this event, as shown in FIG. 9, the CPU 41 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 displays a content switching screen 80 showing alist of all the content titles possessed by the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 at the display device 5, and, for example, displays acontent title 81 for the number 0003 selected by a passenger in the rearseating in reverse. This may then be dragged and dropped by a passengerso that, for example, the content playback order of numbers 0001, 0002,0015, . . . , 0003 and 0016 is changed over in response to shifting ofthe portion for the content title for number 0015.

The CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 not only changesthe content playback order but is also capable of changing the numbers0001, 0002, . . . , 0015, and 0016 by deleting the content title 81 ofthe number 0003 displayed in an inverted manner.

In this event, at the in-vehicle equipment system 70, it is possible toset a data protection function in advance with respect to both therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 in order to prevent content from being erroneously deletedby a passenger in the rear seating without the knowledge of a driver inthe front seating.

In this case also, at the in-vehicle equipment system 70, it is possibleto set and release a data protection function for the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2 and the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3according to operations of the game controller 71 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3. It is then not possible to change or delete thecontent playback order when the data protection function is set.

As shown in FIG. 10, after carrying out editing at the content switchingscreen 80 in step SP71, when the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicleequipment 3 confirms pressing of the overwrite button by a passenger inthe rear seating, the next step SP72 is proceeded to.

In step SP72, the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3notifies the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 that content switchingprocessing by the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 is complete,transmits the content of these content switching results and proceeds tothe next step SP74.

In this event, in step SP81, the CPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 determines whether or not there is no problem withoverwriting the content title in the possession of the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2 with the content switching results.

In this event, in the event that it is determined that the driver in thefront seat does not authorize the overwriting with the content of theswitching results, or in the event that the hard disc 21 or thenon-volatile memory 14 to which the content of the editing results areto be re-written are write-protected, a negative result is obtained, andthe rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 is notified that “overwriting isnot possible”.

When an affirmative result is obtained in step SP81 in this respect, theCPU 11 of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 goes to the next stepSP82, updates the data for the content title by overwriting with thecontent switching results, transmits notification of overwritecompletion to the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, proceeds to thenext step SP83, and processing is complete.

In step SP74, the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3determines whether or not overwriting is complete, obtains a negativeresult when notification of overwrite completion is not received fromthe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 and proceeds to step SP73,displays an indication that overwrite processing could not be carriedout as error processing on the display device 5, and repeats theprocessing from step SP72 onwards.

With respect to this, in step SP74, when receipt of an overwritecompletion notification from the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 isdetected by the CPU 41 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3, anaffirmative result is obtained, the next step SP75 is proceeded to, andthe content switching processing procedure is complete.

(2-3) Operation and Results

In the above configuration, in the in-vehicle equipment system 70, allcontent titles relating to content in the possession of thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 is acquired using the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3. These are then displayed at the display device 5of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and content switchingoperation can then be carried out by a passenger in the rear seating viathe game controller 71.

As a result, the driver in the front seat does not have to carry outcontent switching operations by themselves and it is no longer necessaryto perform complex input operations via the hardware switch 18.

Further, at the in-vehicle equipment system 70, the content switchingresults are sent to the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. Thecontent switching results are then confirmed by the driver and aninvitation is also made to determine whether or not to perform overwriteprocessing. This means that it is possible to reflect the intent of thedriver in the front seat in the content of the results of contentswitching carried out by a passenger in the rear seating. It istherefore possible to prevent important content titles from beingoverwritten by the driver and to prevent the playback order of thecontent from being changed around, etc.

Namely, a driver support system can be implemented at the in-vehicleequipment system 70 where, intrinsically speaking, content switchingoperations to be carried out by the driver at the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2 can be implemented by a passenger located in thevicinity of the rear seating instead of the driver via the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3.

Further, at the in-vehicle equipment system 70, the content switchingoperation can be carried out via the keyboard 6 connected to therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and the display device 5 with ascreen size that is larger than that of the display section 19 of thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 rather than via the hardware switch18 of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2. The input operation istherefore markedly more straightforward and easier for operation andincreases the degree of freedom of the passenger.

According to the above configuration, at the in-vehicle equipment system70 it is possible for all of the content titles for content possessed bythe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 to be acquired from therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 and for a content switchingoperation to be carried out by a passenger on the display device 5 ofthe rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 via the game controller 71. Itis therefore possible to implement a driver support system where thecontent switching operation can be executed in a dramatically morestraightforward manner inside a vehicle and where a driver is not forcedto perform complex input operations.

(3) Other Preferred Embodiments

In the first and second preferred embodiments described above, adescription is given of the case of editing music data titles andcontent titles possessed by the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2using the display device 5 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3and switching the order of playback but the present invention is by nomeans limited in this respect, and switching of images displayed by thedisplay section 19 of the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 using therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 is also possible.

In the first and second embodiments described above, a description isgiven of the case where music data titles and content titles are editedand the playback order switched but the present invention is by no meanslimited in this respect and may also be applied to performing editingoperations relating to various data stored in the hard disc and thenon-volatile memory 14 possessed by the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 on a screen of the display device 5 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3.

Moreover, in the first and second embodiments described above, adescription is given of the case where music data titles and contenttitles are edited and the playback order switched but the presentinvention is by no means limited in this respect and may also be appliedto switching sources such as CDs and MDs the front-mounted in-vehicleequipment 2 is capable of playing back on a screen of the display device5 of the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3.

In the first and second embodiments described above, a description isgiven of the case where music data titles and content titles are editedand playback order is switched over by the display device 5 of therear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 but the present invention is by nomeans limited in this respect, and may also be applied to executingvarious setting operations that are required to be carried out for anavigation function such as navigation destination setting or routesearch etc. on a screen of a display device 5 of the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 and sending these results to the front-mountedin-vehicle equipment 2 so that these results are reflected.

In the first and second embodiments, a description is given of the casewhere a wired connection having a cable 4 is taken to be the means forconnecting the front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 and the rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment 3 but the present invention is by no means limitedin this respect, so that connection can be carried out by connectingmeans other than cables or wires and also by wireless or contactlessconnection employing IEEE (Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers) 802.11g or others, or Bluetooth communication system, forexample, may also be employed.

In the first embodiment and the second embodiment a description is givenof cases where the in-vehicle equipment systems 1 and 70 are configuredfrom front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 comprised of an integratedaudio unit of a CD and an MD and a rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3constituted by a game device. However, the present invention is by nomeans limited in this respect and the in-vehicle equipment systems 1 and70 may also be configured from front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2constituted by a navigation device and rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment3 constituted by a DVD player, or by in-vehicle equipment systems 1 and70 configured from other types of front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2and rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3.

Moreover, in the first and second embodiments, a description is given ofcases where results of editing relating to music data titles and contenttitles and content switching results for switching content playbackorder carried out at the rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment 3 are sent tothe front-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 so that a driver in the frontseating is invited to make a determination as to whether or not tooverwrite using the editing results or the content switching results.However, the present invention is by no means limited in this respectand it is also possible to send the content sequentially to thefront-mounted in-vehicle equipment 2 in intermediate stages of editingrelating to the title or in intermediate stages for switching thecontent playback order so as to invite a determination by the driver inthe front seating.

The in-vehicle equipment system according to the preferred embodimentsof the present invention may be utilized in various applications forcontrolling front-mounted in-vehicle equipment from rear-mountedin-vehicle equipment at positions separated from each other with, forexample, front-mounted in-vehicle equipment positioned at the front ofthe vehicle internal space and rear-mounted in-vehicle equipmentpositioned at the rear of the vehicle internal space.

1. An in-vehicle equipment system comprising: front-mounted in-vehicleequipment arranged at a front portion of a vehicle inner space;rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment arranged at a rear portion of thevehicle inner space; and connection adapted to connect saidfront-mounted in-vehicle equipment and said rear-mounted in-vehicleequipment; said rear-mounted in-vehicle equipment controls saidfront-mounted in-vehicle equipment via an input means, wherein anoperation of editing content of a storage device in possession of saidfront-mounted in-vehicle equipment is carried out using a screen of saidrear-mounted in-vehicle equipment.